Dalits thrashed at Una: 4 cops held for dereliction of duty, CID files chargesheet against 37

On 7 September, the Gujarat CID filed its chargesheet against 34 persons and three minors, including four police personnel, in the incident where members of a Dalit family were flogged at Una town of Gir-Somnath district.

Before filing the chargesheet, the CID officials arrested four police personnel attached with Una police station on charges of dereliction of duty and helping the accused by forging documents. The apprehended cops were also shown as accused in the chargesheet.

Some of the key accused, arrested in the initial stages of investigation and against whom chargesheet was filed today include Pramodgiri Goswami, Ramesh Jadav, Balwant Goswami, Rakesh Joshi and Nagji Vaniya.

These 34 accused have been charged under various sections of IPC, such as 307 (attempt to murder), 397 (robbery), 365 (kidnapping), 355 (assault to dishonor a person), 342 (wrongful confinement), 147 (rioting), 324 (causing hurt by weapon) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) among others.

They were also charged under section 3(1) (e),(r),(s),(u), 3(2)(5a), 3(1)(d) of Prevention of Atrocities Act. Besides, they were also charged under section 66 A and 66 B of the Information and Technology Act for allegedly making and circulating the clip of the incident.

Apart from the 34 chargesheeted in the Una court today, CID also charged three minors, as they were also apprehended during the probe. The CID has filed a separate chargesheet against these minors in the Juvenile Justice Board at Junagadh.

In the chargesheet, CID has alleged that the four cops "misused" their position by not acting against the perpetrators. It is alleged that though four Dalits were thrashed for almost 4-5 hours by self proclaimed cow vigilantes, the accused cops did nothing to stop the crime. Also, the police personnel connived with the perpetrators and forged some FIR related documents to help them, the chargesheet said.